Health-Care Repeal Fails in Senate

The health-care bill repeal legislation that passed so handily in the House two weeks ago was struck down by the Senate today. Despite a strong Republican campaign, the Senate rejected the bill, voting along party lines 47-51. Even if the bill had passed in the Senate, President Obama had vowed to veto themeasure.

Obama’s health-care bill has been intensely scrutinized on both sides of the aisle, and in recent weeks it’s come up against challenges from judges in Virginia and Florida. Republicans are unhappy with what they consider to be an increased government role in regulating health care. But Democrats argued that repealing the bill would increase the deficit. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev) hopes that the failure of the repeal bill means the GOP has gotten attempts at health-care repeal “out of the system.” But a full-on repeal of the bill is one of several tactics Republicans are trying in order to prevent Obama’s health-care reform from taking effect. On Tuesday, Republicans introduced a bill that would enable states to opt out of the health-care plan’s “individual mandate,” which requires everyone to purchase health insurance by 2014 or incurpenalties.